I have attached two photographs of a medallion I found among my mother’s things. My mother was born in Czernowitz in 1913. Her parents and maternal and paternal grandparents were all Czernowitzers from around the mid 1850s.

The medallion could be Romanian, Austro-Hungarian, German or something else.

It looks like a coin with the tiny photograph fixed to one side and decorated with enamelled Forget-me-nots.

I wonder if anyone from the list is able to identify the gentleman – possibly a monarch – and the coin. I cannot find a date on the medallion. It may have been on the side that was later decorated with the photograph and the flowers.

By way of Sid Seidenstein:
The Race to Save a Hauntingly Beautiful Photo Archive

Costica Acsinte was a Romanian army photographer during World War I who, following his discharge, opened a small commercial studio in Slobozia, about 80 miles east of Bucharest. For two decades after the war, he was likely the only professional photographer in the county, and by the time of his death in 1984, he had built an archive of epic, anthropological scope containing upwards of 5,000 glass-plate negatives and several hundred prints.

And here is the link to the digitized photos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/costicaacsinte
When you get to the Album you will see many large thumbnails. Click on any one of them for a full screen presentation. To navigate through the photos use the left and right arrows that appear when your mouse is to the left or right of the photo.